The "Gossamer Wings of Easy Promise"Schools so unique they must copy text from other schools

Page created May 5, 2013

In his 2012 doctoral dissertation in the field of Human Development at Marywood University, Erkan (sometimes Ercan) Acar uses the word "unique" more than once in describing the "Gulen-inspired school" Pioneer Academy of Science, located in New Jersey:

"The school's strategies to make parents especially involved in their children's education were quite unique to the school."

"...the school teachers' modifications to course subjects for better educational success were unique and can be applicable in other schools in the US."

The latter assertion, that other schools would benefit from adopting some of the Pioneer school's methods, is put forth several times by Acar, such as in the following line about home visits: "Accordingly,
such a simple activity can be transferred to improve overall academic and disciplinary success in any other schools in the United States."

Yet in actuality it appears that (notwithstanding Pioneer's "unique" attributes) the "transfers" are occurring in rather the opposite direction.

Thus, Pioneer's webpage on its College Counseling Philosophy consists nearly in its entirety of text copied from the ultra-elite Pomfret School in Connecticut (annual tuition without board, 2013-14: $33,000) and the even more exclusive Milton Academy near Boston, Massachusetts (annual tuition without board, per website accessed spring 2013: $39,000). (Pioneer's own tuition is far less, ranging from $7000-9500, perhaps as a result of cost-saving from applying "shared best practices" of other schools.)

The first 228 words of Pioneer Academy's page, starting with "College counseling at Pioneer is a highly individualized process with
the goal of producing the best possible match between each student and the
college or university which best fits that student..." show only a few minor changes from the text on Pomfret College's website, which begins "College
counseling at Pomfret is a highly individualized process with the goal of
producing the best possible match between each uniquely talented student and
the college or university which best fits that student...." Interestingly, a near verbatim copy of this text also can be found on the website (accessed spring 2013) of Hampden Charter School of Science, a Gulen charter school in Massachusetts: "College counseling at HCSS is a highly individualized process with the goal of producing the best possible match between each uniquely talented student and the college or university which best fits that student."

The next 390 words from Pioneer's webpage, beginning with "However, we expect and want students to take control of this process.
Our job is to guide, counsel, probe, recommend, refer, suggest, and inform...." are clearly derived from a similar-themed page on the website of Milton Academy, albeit with minor edits and some omissions. A particularly striking line these pages have verbatim in common is: "True maturity comes when a person's sense of
self is grounded confidently in reality, not when it is flying on the gossamer
wings of easy promise." One would not expect such literary flourish (at least in English) from Gulen's followers, nearly all of whom struggle to piece together sentences that invariably contain awkward phrasings and grammatical errors. For example, the Hampden Charter School of Science made a few edits to Pomfret College's text, resulting in the unfortunate "Experienced
college counselors has multiple opportunities to get to know students in the
classroom, on the playing fields, etc., guiding them through their college
search is our primary responsibility," instead of Pomfret's original wording "While
each counselor has multiple opportunities to get to know students in the
classroom, on the playing fields, etc., guiding them through their college
search is our primary responsibility."

Even more efficient than copying text - copying an entire website

Copying text from elite private schools rather than producing it in-house or hiring a PR firm results in cost-savings. Profit margins can be increased even further, however, by copying an entire website, thereby reducing salary expenses for both PR and web development personnel. A Gulen school in Mozambique, the Willow International School (founded 2003) has been on the front lines of such economization. During a period in Oct-Dec 2012, it was possible to observe in real time how the Willow school copied the entire website of the upscale Glenelg Country private school in Howard County, Maryland, and modified it for its own purposes. Even in May 2013, a Google search of the words "Willow International School Mozambique" still brought up meta-data indicating it was "founded in 1954" and "is the only independent college preparatory pre-K through 12 school in Howard County:"

Is there a Howard County in Mozambique? No, but there is one in Maryland, and the Glenelg Country School (founded 1954) is located there. Whoever copied the Glenelg school's website neglected to change the site meta-data that is used for Google indexing:

When accessed in Oct-Dec 2012, the Willow website still contained references to Maryland, to the Glenelg Country School, and even to the photos and names of some Glenelg employees, as shown on the following screenshots, all taken from the Willow school website, http://willow.org.mz. The next screenshot shows two members of Glenelg's counseling staff:

Note how this screenshot, taken in Dec 2012, shows references to Maryland athletic leagues:

The expansive green lawn is lovely (see http://www.glenelg.org to view it in situ) but improbable. Mozambique has suffered from severe droughts for years.

The Willow school website has a "Head's Welcome" letter (i.e., a letter from the principal) that is a near-verbatim copy of a letter from the Coxhoe Primary School, an elite private school in the United Kingdom. (Link accessed Dec 2012. It is necessary to mouse-over "Head's Welcome" to see the version closest to the Coxhoe letter. Without the mouse-over, another version of the letter is displayed that has been edited slightly, but still obviously derives from the Coxhoe letter.)

This is just an additional screenshot to show the web address (the text is easier to read in the image above):

Here, for comparison, is a screenshot showing the original letter on the Coxhoe Primary School website:

The above are just a sampling of the numerous instances of copy-paste performed by Gulen schools, businesses, and organizations as they "shop" the web for material that suits their purposes. Yet supposed experts who study this Movement and its schools continue to repeat the mantra that its schools are excellent. Do truly excellent schools find the need to engage in such practices?